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2009-06-16 issue:

Breathing helps us understand the nature of God, Hipps tells youth

by Heidi Martin

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The youth did not seem to get their fill in the opening worship service Tuesday evening as they lined the entrance to Nationwide Arena as early as an hour before the service Wednesday morning. While finding seats, youth once again lifted their voices in song under the direction of Jeremy Kempf.

When the lights dimmed, a video described the power of God through scripture from Genesis 1, Pslam 18 and Revelations 5 and 7. When the stage lights raised, Stompers appeared on stage and performed a stomp dance. Using hand claps, feet stomps and breath, the group portrayed the Holy Spirit dancing with creation.

Shane Hipps began his message with a dance as well though it had nothing to do with the session on “God’s Awesome Power.”

Referring to this year’s theme found in John 20:21-22, Hipps questioned the connection between breathing and the Holy Spirit. He went on to explain that “spirit” and “breath” are the same word in the Hebrew and Greek languages in which the Bible is originally written.

Though the English language has separated the two concepts, they are interchangeable in the ancient languages. This caused Hipps to draw powerful conclusions.

“All of God’s love and power are in [each] breath because it is God’s Spirit,” said Hipps. ““The simplest truth of all this stuff is that the fullness of God’s power resides in each and every breath we take.

As lead pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix Arizona, many come to him with confessions and questions about the reality of God’s forgiveness. His response is simple.

“If you want to understand the nature of God, understand the nature of the breath you just took,” said Hipps. “Your breath has no judgment in it at all. You breath is completely faithful. Your breath doesn’t reject you. You cannot separate yourself from God any more than you can separate yourself from your breath.”

Hipps message only grew stronger when he shared our inability to earn breath or separate ourselves from it.

“There is not a single thing you can do in this life, good or bad, to earn this breath,” said Hipps. “It is an amazing gift.”

To conclude the message, Hipps challenged the crowd to consider their first breath and their last as well as every breath in-between.

“Between this first breath and this last breath, you have a faithful supply of breath,” said Hipps. “Extract every last nutrient from the breath given to you.

And finally, Hipps called his audience to respond to this gift of breath--this gift of the spirit--in the only way possible, with gratitude Kempf maintained this attitude of gratefulness through the song “Be Still and Know that I am God” before wrapping up the morning service with announcements and a closing benediction.

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